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City workers will remove the brick crosswalks at three intersections along Cabrillo Boulevard because they were defective from the start and have since defied all efforts at repair. They will be replaced with regular asphalt crosswalks. According to city engineer Pat Kelly, these changes will take place where Castillo, Bath, and Chapala cross Cabrillo Boulevard, and the new crosswalks will be installed early in the new year.

The brick crosswalks are significantly more expensive to install, and these in particular have been dogged by such serious repair issues that they had to be entirely replaced shortly after their installation. Kelly said he remains mystified exactly what went wrong, but he chalks the problems up to a combination of bad materials and the environment. The brick crosswalks — installed in 2009 — visually alert oncoming drivers to look out for pedestrians. Many are now showing signs of age.

Kelly cautioned against “throwing the baby out with the bath water,” pointing out that other brick crosswalks along Cabrillo — like the one by the Los Banos del Mar Swimming Pool and the Ambassador Park — are holding up just fine.

Comments

Has anyone noticed that these particular brick crosswalks are not the only defective examples? At least several of the bulb out cross walks at other locations have been patched with asphalt as well for months. Who knew that in addition to being simply wacky, bulb outs would also be a perpetual money pit? As my wife stated "The Romans figured out how to build with pavers over 2,500 years ago".

Lovely. Pay to have unnecessary, even if attractive, brick crosswalks installed. Then pay again to have them removed. Then pay again to have the crosswalks blacktopped. Welfare for overpaid city employees.

In the East they've used cobblestones for centuries - are we incompetent here? (Rhetorical question.)

Make the contractor pay for the fix. Oh, yeah this is a city job and as such was designed by incompetents, installed by incompetents and defended by incompetents- all of which are paid 3x what they'd get in any private sector job while getting to retire at 55 at 95% of their last years salary.

Disgusting doesnt even begin to describe the actions of our Govt in these matters.

Please name the idiots who are in charge of this dept and decision? We need names and accountability.

There are no bulbouts where Castillo, Bath and Chapala intersect Carillo so it's kinda nutty to claim they are the cause. The real cause is the actual traffic, especially the big trucks that come through. But what do I know, I'm just an artist with his head in the clouds (and his eyes on the street on which he drives- which no one else here is required to do apparently!)

I walk there 4 days a week from Ledbetter down to Stearns and back. Several bulb outs in sight. I never claimed the "let's call them new pedestrian crossing points made of the same materials as bulbouts but not at 4 way intersections" were THE CAUSE of the cracking. But the nefarious giant trucks you sight were not cracking the old, regular guy asphalt. Let's just call it another amazing offshoot of the "law of unintended consequences". We had a perfectly good street, we tore it up for unproven reasons, and now the new design does not even stand up to traffic.For those of you that think bulbouts ONLY exist at 4 way intersections(really pretty stupid of you KV)take a look at the 4 way intersection bulbout sidewalk at Anapamu and De la Vina. Same busted up bricks.

Basic issues here have to do with the Re-Development Agency and the other special pots of money that have been created over the years for pet projects of vested interests. The money set aside in these pots is not useable for other needy projects, such as sidewalks in neighborhoods outside the RDA, for example. We have painted ourselves into several corners by allowing these designated funding systems and denying our elected officials discretion on how to spend the money on better public needs. Look at the city's current rush to spend the RDA money before the state takes it--anyone think the spending will be for high priority public needs???

First money down the drain alert! I spotted another new brick crosswalk that's shot and patched with asphalt at Anapamu and Bath. I won't mention that this was done after tearing up a perfectly good intersection to install a bulb out.Second money down the drain alert! They now water all of the vegetation around the new bulb outs with a truck and 3 crew members that drive around all day and hand water our new landscaping. It sort of looks like a Chicago style public works project intended to bolster the employment numbers in the district of a particular alderman.